


A Poor Man's Tools

by SamCyberCat



Category: Free!
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-15
Updated: 2016-09-15
Packaged: 2018-08-15 04:34:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8042800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SamCyberCat/pseuds/SamCyberCat
Summary: Sousuke believes in the saying that it's a poor tradesman who blames his tools. While Kisumi thinks that's a load of rubbish.





	A Poor Man's Tools

**Author's Note:**

> Written for SousukesBirthdayBash. I'm a day late for Sousuke's actual birthday, but thankfully the event goes on all week.

This route was one that Kisumi had walked down so often that it was practically embedded into his memory. He could probably close his eyes and still get from A to B without too much incident. However, he'd rather not walk about with his eyes shut because (other than the obvious mishaps that would come with doing so) then he'd miss all of the everyday things that went on all around him. Because even if the path itself was always the same, what happened along it was not. Kisumi had witnessed so many casual conversations, little dramas, acts of kindness and all that good stuff just from walking along this stretch. In that regard each journey was different and he loved it.

But some things are more different than others and Sousuke, as a rule, was hard to miss.

Kisumi's morning walk always took him through a small street that ran down the back of where Sousuke's parents home and shop was. From the path you could easily see into the small garden, but there usually wasn't anything going on in there that was worth looking at.

Today however, there was a Sousuke. He seemed to be sanding down a wooden frame as best Kisumi could tell. It was unusual to see him there these days. Last Kisumi checked, Sousuke was boarding over at Samezuka Academy and Kisumi wasn't sure he even lived with his parents any more. Needless to say, the unexpected appearance of his old friend was enough to catch Kisumi's attention and he made his way over to the gate. He rested his arms on it and called across to Sousuke.

“Hey, long time no see!”

Sousuke looked up from where he was working. It probably wasn't that he took a second to recognise Kisumi, because Kisumi was pretty memorable (and also, if you asked Kisumi, just very pretty in general), but Sousuke was often slow and methodical in his reactions. He raised a hand to motion for Kisumi to come over and, not needing to be told twice, Kisumi opened the gate and walked across to where he was sat.

“Haven't seen you in this neck of the woods for a while. Something happen?” Kisumi asked. He never saw the point of dancing around what you wanted to say.

“Term's finished now, so I'm back for the moment,” replied Sousuke, who was easily someone who had Kisumi beat in the being blunt and direct department.

“For the moment...?” Kisumi echoed.

A shrug; “I might have other plans in future, but for now I'm here.”

“Well, it'll be nice to see you around again. What's that you're working on?” said Kisumi.

“Just a sideboard for the house. We never seem to have enough space to put knick-knacks on,” Sousuke answered.

He moved his hand so that Kisumi could get a better look if he wanted to. Admittedly Kisumi wasn't an expert on such things, but the wooden finish didn't look the best that it could do, he felt.

“Guess you've still got a way to go before it's done,” hummed Kisumi.

“Actually, I'm almost finished sanding,” Sousuke corrected.

Kisumi covered his mouth; “I am so sorry, Sousuke! It just looked... um, I mean, I've seen other stuff you've made around the shop before and it always looks... different to this.”

“Maybe I'm just losing my touch,” Sousuke laughed.

“What sort of tools are you using?” asked Kisumi.

“Just the same ones I've always used. They've been in my family since my dad was young and they've always served us well,” said Sousuke.

Kisumi looked over at the sander. He also wasn't a great judge of tools, but it was hard to miss the wear and tear that came with age, and this thing was getting on in its years.

“Don't you think it's time to get a new one?” he said.

“No. This one might be old, but it works fine. I can't blame the sander if the sideboard doesn't come out as well as I want it to,” Sousuke insisted.

“I think you can...” Kisumi muttered, pulling a face. But he knew that Sousuke was too stubborn to budge once he'd made up his mind and he didn't fancy standing around here arguing about it, so he quickly went on to add, “Well, I should let you get back to it then. And if you'll be here for a while then hopefully we'll see a lot more of each other.”

“Yeah, I hope so,” Sousuke replied, with a nod. Then it was back to sanding. A master of charm, that Sousuke.

***

It ended up being another two weeks before Kisumi saw Sousuke again. He hadn't wanted to seem too eager, so he'd been avoiding the shop a little bit. Which turned out to be kind of a pain, because it was the nearest local shop to him and he often went there to pick up bits and pieces.

One afternoon, when he was walking back with Hayato from swim practise, he decided that he really needed avocados and hopefully enough time had past that it wouldn't seem awkward if he ran into Sousuke again. So the two of them made a beeline for the shop.

Sousuke's mother recognised Kisumi right away. Which wasn't surprising, given that back when they were kids, Kisumi and Rin were regular faces here, bothering Sousuke to come hang out with them. She said that Sousuke was out through in the garden, then invited Kisumi and Hayato through to see him. Kisumi instantly decided that he'd much rather talk to Sousuke than buy avocados.

Out in the garden, Sousuke was sat in the same spot that Kisumi had seen him in two weeks ago. Only now, instead of a sideboard, it was a chair he was hammering back together.

“I might as well start calling you a carpenter,” Kisumi joked.

A cheerful snort; “I promise I don't do this all the time. It just seems to be when you come by.”

“Anyone would think you're trying to impress me,” teased Kisumi.

“If I wanted to do that when I wouldn't be sat here hammering a chairing,” assured Sousuke.

He didn't elaborate any further on that notion, seeing as Hayato was there. As Sousuke and Kisumi talked, Hayato sat down next to Sousuke to watch him work. He'd always been a quietly curious child, which worked well with Sousuke being a quietly just-getting-on-with-it sort of person. After a few minutes of Hayato just listening to the two of them talking though, he looked back up at Kisumi.

“Um, do you think Sousuke could fix my bike? The wheel's been a bit wobbly for a while now and I think the bell's stopped working,” he said.

“I don't see why I couldn't give it a look,” Sousuke answered, “Just bring it over sometime.”

Hayato nodded happily. Then he got up and ran back through to the shop, having decided that this conversation was over.

“He'll take after you, just asking for what he wants like that,” Sousuke commented, once Hayato was gone.

“I wouldn't say I'm always like that,” argued Kisumi. He pretended to pout, “If I just said everything I wanted, then we'd be having a very different conversation. Like I think you were getting at before.”

“Maybe,” Sousuke replied.

It was unusual to not get either a yes or a no from Sousuke about anything. This lack of confirmation was much more interesting, Kisumi thought. Almost as if he was teasing.

“Okay, I know your game,” Kisumi said, “We go out to dinner as friends a few time, no hand-holding until the fifth date, don't even think about kissing until the tenth and so on and so forth.”

“Only if you like to take it that slow,” Sousuke replied, with a shrug.

Kisumi felt his face burning up, which wasn't like him at all. He had to recover quickly and his eyes darted around for anything else that he could talk about. For whatever reason, he settled on the chair that Sousuke was working on.

“Hey. Um, looks like you've been working on that same part for a while now. Don't you think it'd go faster if you had... eh, a better hammer?” Even as it came out of his mouth, Kisumi realised it sounded bad.

He was granted a raise of an eyebrow from Sousuke in response. And when you had eyebrows as impressive as Sousuke did, any expression involving them was amplified tenfold.

“I could understand the sander, but you can't blame a hammer for my work,” he said.

“A-ha! So you do accept there was something wrong with the sander!” Kisumi latched onto that, mostly to save himself from further embarrassment.

“I accept that it's old, but otherwise it works fine,” Sousuke insisted.

“Ugh, you really are stubborn. Let me take a look at those tools,” Kisumi muttered.

Without waiting for a reply from Sousuke, he bent down to look through the toolkit that was next to him. Sure enough, there was the old sander and next to it were all of its rusty friends. He could see why Sousuke would argue that they were old, because clearly they were, but because of that they'd also become bad tools. Because tools, Kisumi mused, weren't like people. They didn't get better with age. When a knife started to get dull you either needed to sharpen it or replace it, the same applying to everything in this box. But honestly, no matter how much care these particular tools were given (and knowing the Yamazaki family, it would be a great amount of care), there was nothing that could save them from their fate of just not having much left in them.

“They're fine,” stated Sousuke, who seemed to know exactly what Kisumi was thinking.

“Okay, yeah, whatever. A poor tradesman blames his tools and all that, right?” Kisumi sighed. He got back up to his feet, “Anyway, I should go get Hayato now. I'll bring the bike around tomorrow, if you're not busy.”

“That should be fine,” replied Sousuke.

And with that, he got back to working on the chair, leaving Kisumi to go fetch both his brother and the avocados as an idea formed in his head.

***

It was later the next day than Kisumi had intended by the time he brought the bike around to the Yamazaki household. He'd had to wait in for a delivery, then check to make sure the contents of said delivery were all right. At least as best he could tell. By that time Hayato had long since gone to school, so Kisumi decided to take the bike around while he was out. If the damage wasn't that bad then Sousuke might even have it finished before he got back from school.

For once, Sousuke wasn't sat in the garden when Kisumi wheeled the bike around the back path that led onto it. Regardless, he soon came outside when he heard Kisumi struggling with the gate. Because Kisumi had the bike on one side and a heavy load tucked under his other arm. He didn't object when Sousuke took the parcel out from under his arm.

“What's this?” Sousuke asked, eyeing up the bright pink ribbon that was stuck onto the top.

“It's what it looks like – a toolkit,” Kisumi replied, “I got it for you.”

“But I already have one,” Sousuke reminded.

“No, your dad has one. You've just been using it,” countered Kisumi, “And now you have one of your own, so you don't have to any more. You wouldn't turn down a present from a friend, would you?”

“I guess not...” Sousuke mumbled.

He carried the toolkit across to his usual spot, with Kisumi bringing the bike along behind him. Then Sousuke set the box down and opened it out, picking up a screwdriver to inspect it.

“I hope everything's all right. Honestly, I had no idea what I was looking for, but this one was kind of expensive, so I hope that means it'll be good,” Kisumi said, as he set the bike down on the ground, “And look, all the handles on them are pink, so you can think of me when you're... um, screwing. Or doing whatever else.”

Sousuke laughed, “Okay, I'll think of you. And thank you, Kisumi. These are very nice.”

“And I'm sure you'll do a better job now you have them,” Kisumi added.

“I'm still not going to blame my dad's tools for that, but we'll see,” Sousuke insisted.

After that, he pulled the bike over to start working on the broken bell and Kisumi sat next to him to watch. As he watched Sousuke work, Kisumi realised that he probably couldn't change his views about the tools not being the problem, no matter how old and obviously bad they were. But what he could do was give him new tools, because then those tools would become the ones that Sousuke couldn't blame. And if the end result was that Sousuke's work got better, well, maybe Kisumi would know in himself that he'd won the debate without having to make a point of it.

As he saw the broken bell come together again, effortlessly under Sousuke's care, Kisumi already knew that he was right.


End file.
